I don't want to spoil the party, but ...
the fawning media and fans who genuflect before his ability to play middle linebacker leaves me feeling bloodless and cold.
I do not turn away because he and his mates are about to challenge our local New England Patriots, Over the past several years, their games have been as tightly contested and competitive as any and, as a fan, I appreciate that. Nor do I turn away because of what has become to me, the wearisome, buffoonish and self-indulgent sight of Lewis' dance upon entering any stadium.
I realize that he is (or was) a very great football player; possibly one of the greatest ever.
This is why I deny Ray Lewis a single measure of my admiration. On January 31, 2000 around 4:30 a.m. outside an Atlanta nightclub following a Super Bowl party, Ray Lewis and two companions, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, got into a fight with Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar. When it was over, Baker and Lollar had each been stabbed multiple times.
The Lewis' party then entered his 40 foot limousine and drove away while Baker and Lollar bled to death on the street. Lewis had been wearing a white suit. That suit was never found.
Eleven days later, Lewis, Oakley and Sweeting were indicted for murder. Following a month in jail, Lewis agreed to testify against Oakley and Sweeting. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice. Lewis received 12 months probation and ordered not to use drugs or alcohol. He was back on the football field immediately.
Lewis testified against Oakley and Sweeting. There were no other witnesses. Largely on the basis of that testimony, his friends were found to have acted in self-defense and acquitted. Four years later, Lewis settled a civil suit brought on behalf of Lollar's daughter who was born months after the death of her father. He has never admitted to anything or ever apologized.
I understand that as a nation of fanatics, myself included, we are so enamored of athletes in particular and celebrity in general that we forgive virtually anything they do; sexual assault, or alcohol and drug abuse -even increasingly, steroids (provided the guilty (e.g. busted) party admits to it, apologizes and oh yes, plays for our favorite team). Most of us are have even learned to forgive or, at least forget, animal abuse. Why, we even forgive the sports hero who our most common of senses shriek committed double murder.
So what sets Brother Ray apart and estranged from forgiveness when the man is revered by and considered an inspiration to and icon among his peers? After all, the man has a foundation to benefit disadvantaged children and thirteen years is a very long time. So, why withhold from Ray Lewis the tributes and adulation he is "due?"
It is because Ray Lewis possesses the awful temerity, the thundering audacity, the jaw-dropping gall, the breathtakingly self-infused egotism, the utter and complete absence of humility that enables him to proclaim his own personal triumphs and the Raven's victories the product of "God's will"; to repeatedly pronounce that God has blessed him; that his team wins because it is all part of an "amazing" God's divine plan. It is because he has assured us that when he leaves the sport it is to assume a higher calling".
Infidel though I may be, if the Almighty, (if, in fact, One there be), gives a damn about Life, then I do not believe He gives a damn about sports, the Baltimore Ravens or whether Ray Lewis ever wins or loses another football game.
And if that self-same God truly resides in Ray Lewis' huddle, then on the night they died, Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar were God forsaken. I take this as an article of faith. Ray Lewis does not. And this I do not accept. So I choose not to celebrate Ray Lewis' football career and why, when it is finally at an end, I will be at greater peace.
January, 2013
UPDATE: January, 2013
Even though RAY LEWIS! (and RAY LEWIS! team) won the Super Bowl, the day was not a complete loss to this viewer. My eyes confirmed what common sense already knew: if RAY LEWIS! was not the worst player on the field, it was dang close. His speed and quickness a memory that even the antlers of a deer could not restore, RAY LEWIS!contribution was limited to jumping on piles and standing on the side lines screaming about RAY LEWIS' God! I fell asleep an eye blink after the game ended so I missed every interview including those that might been with RAY LEWIS! The next several days I stayed away from sports to avoid RAY LEWIS and it stayed that way until I heard the latest RAY LEWIS! news...
RAY LEWIS! maintains 2 foundations for children so that RAY LEWIS! can remind one and all what a wonderful human being RAY LEWIS! is. Those charities lost their tax exempt status for failing to pay taxes three years running. But that's not all. RAY LEWIS! was paid $7 million dollars last season to be RAY LEWIS! (or a reasonable facsimile thereof). From that sum, RAY LEWIS! contributed $0.00 to his own foundations. That's zero. Zip. Nada. That's RAY LEWIS! a deeply worshipful Man of God.
UPDATE: In the news to absolutely no one department, RAY LEWIS! has denied a report in Sports Illustrated that RAY LEWIS! used deer antler spray, a banned performance enhancing substance, (for which the NFL does not test) to accelerate RAY LEWIS'! remarkably speedy return from a torn tricep muscle. While he was at it, RAY LEWIS defended RAY LEWIS! "secret society", and attacked RAY LEWIS!' accuser as a coward.
Never one to leave his professed faith out of any conversation about RAY LEWIS!, RAY LEWIS! reminded everyone within shouting distance of RAY LEWIS!' voice (can you hear RAY LEWIS talking to you, Lord?) where these allegations are really coming from: "The trick of the devil is to kill, steal and destroy. That's what he comes to do. He comes to distract you from everything you're trying to do. There's no man ever trained as hard as our team has trained. (sic) There's no man that's went through what we went through. So to give somebody credit that doesn't deserve credit, that would be a slap in the face for everything we went through."
Who can debate RAY LEWIS! or deny RAY LEWIS! his faith or special insight into God's plan? After all, RAY LEWIS! is a role model to untold numbers of of football fans including many young boys - perhaps even including some of RAY LEWIS!' six children who RAY LEWIS! has fathered by four different women.
So, I'll just settle for this one caveat while I wait for the end of this nauseating onslaught of media coverage of RAY LEWIS! and (small case) the super bowl: from the dawn of time, millions upon and millions of men, women and children have worked as hard or harder than you and your teammates and gone through far more than you have ever dreamed of to accomplish things far more important than winning football games. Believe it, RAY LEWIS!.
February 1, 2013
UPDATE: February 1, 2015. Nothing like a first thing in the morning dose of RAY LEWIS pontificating to raise my bile.
This Super Bowl morning, I turn on the TV to get my fix of the pregame analysis fix and there he sits before me in the expert chair ... RAY LEWIS. In response to a question about how RAY LEWIS felt when he woke up on the morning of January 29, 2001 before playing in the SB in which RAY LEWIS was named Most Valuable Player, the first thing RAY LEWIS told me was that he listened to gospel music to draw closer to his Lord and Savior" blah, blah, blah.
Well RAY LEWIS should have been praying. It was only 6 months earlier that this cement head, RAY LEWIS, cut a deal for leniency and gave state's evidence against RAY LEWIS' former friends in a murder trial. It was only 4 months earlier that RAY LEWIS paid a $250,000. fine imposed by the to the NFL for pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in the murder investigation. (for comparison and perspective purposes Patriots coach, Bill Belichick was fined $500,000.00 for having taped the defensive signals of an opposing team. Protect the Shield!)
The timeline of events leading up to the Ray Lewis murder trial is here. I won't recount the sordid tale again. The man is a liar and a felon. What is unclear is when Ray Lewis experienced his religious conversion. Was it before he was arrested while praying that no one would find the blood stained white suit he was wearing on the evening in question or was it before or after he turned state's evidence and testified against his friends? Or was it some other time?
We all know how often RAY LEWIS turns to his Lord and Savior because RAY LEWIS won't shut the fuck up about it. What some may want to know, RAY LEWIS, is when this miracle happened.
What I want to know is why RAY LEWIS, the sport's world's most self-aggrandizing blowhard is given a forum to spout his barely lucid semi-deranged nonsense and why anyone listens to this pompous twit, RAY LEWIS. It's enough to make me skip ESPN until klick off and that's a very good thing. So, uhhh ... Thanks, RAY LEWIS.
PS Final memo to RAY LEWIS. I don't think God gives a good Goddamn whether you or anyone else wins the Superbowl.
1 comment:
I know nothing of football. But animal welfare people NEVER forget abuse. And quite likely the charity is a tax right off.
It's a pleasure to read your essays
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